Suggested Answers to First Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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Question 1

What do many of you have in common with the late Joe Paterno and the former President of Penn State?

Answer 1

Please keep this question in mind as you progress through the following Q’s & A’s. It will appear again as the last question and will be answered at that time.

Question 2

Who was Eugene Lang?

Answer 2

Eugene Lang was a self-made multi-billionaire who went back to his alma mater, Harlem P.S. 121, to address the graduating sixth graders in 1981. He was all set to tell them to work hard and they could be successful like he had been.

However, as he looked out over the sea of faces in the heart of Harlem, he suddenly told himself “This is bull shit!!!” (please pardon his French) and instead, promised the graduating sixth graders their college tuition if they stayed in school.

The reaction was initially mixed. The parents in attendance and the teachers cheered. The kids were bewildered because they had never heard of a thing called college. But when they saw the reaction of the adults, they concluded that something must have happened akin to their winning the lottery and began to sprout smiles.

During the next six years, Gene provided individual tutors and mentors. And the rest is history. For which Gene received many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bill Clinton.

Question 3

When Eugene Lang’s project which had been in operation 1981-1985, was suddenly featured on 60 Minutes and the front page of the NY Times, how many people (mostly CEO’s of major corporations) stepped forward to replicate what Gene had done?

Answer 3

179.

Question 4

What were the typical high-school graduation rates in the inner-cities of the 51 major American metropolitan areas in which the 179 new “I Have A Dream”® projects operated?

Answer 4

Single digits.

The reasons why this sad fact is often masked are: (1) most drop-out statistics measure only the percentage of students who drop out DURING high school so they fail to take into account anyone who had been killed or incarcerated, or had dropped out, before high school began, (2) various gimmicks are used to avoid counting someone as a “drop out” such as asking a “drop out” whether s/he intends to continue her education and accepting an affirmative answer at face value, and (3) until relatively recently, drop-out statistics were rarely published on a school-by-school basis rather than district-wide.

Question 5

For the 179 new IHAD projects headed primarily by CEO’s of major corporations, how many of their “Dreamers” lived in single-adult households? Single-adult households headed by a drug addict? Single-adult households headed by druggies who signed any welfare checks directly over to the pusher so the kids had to steal just in order to eat?

Answer 5

99% of the “Dreamers” came from single-adult households,
95% of total Dreamer households were headed by a single adult who was a drug addict, and
75%-80% of total Dreamer households were headed by a single-adult drug addict who turned any receipts over to the pusher so that the kids had to steal just in order to eat.

Question 6

Was Yours Truly one of the 179 people who stepped forward as founder, chief benefactor and chief “work horse” to replicate elsewhere what Gene had done? Did Yours Truly’s IHAD project serve 200 “Dreamers” in public-housing projects? Did Yours Truly also serve as the volunteer treasurer of Gene’s IHAD-National Foundation in the 1990’s?

Answer 6

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Question 7

Who served on the IHAD-National Advisory Board for nearly a decade until the 1992 Iowa caucuses?

Answer 7

Hillary Clinton.

Question 8

What was the inspiration for the “1,000 points of light” Inaugural Address?

Answer 8

The first President Bush was fond of saying that his “1,000 points of light” Inaugural Address in January 1989 was inspired by the “I Have A Dream” program.

The first President Bush has raised substantial funds over the years for IHAD-Houston where he resides.

The first President Bush has also raised substantial funds over the years for IHAD-Boston where his nephew, Jamie Bush, was IHAD founder, chief benefactor and chief “work horse.” [Jamie is the son of Prescott Bush, Jr. – Prescott Bush, Sr., was Governor of Connecticut 1952-1963 – Mrs. Prescott Bush, Jr., served on the Advisory Board of Yours Truly’s IHAD-Stamford CT.]

Question 9

What other national figures, though not nearly so well known, were associated with IHAD?

Answer 9

U.S. Senator Chris Coon served with Yours Truly on the IHAD-National Board of Directors in the 1990’s, Chris as Secretary and Yours Truly as Treasurer.

In addition, Gene Sperling studied the “I Have A Dream” program as his major research project during graduate school. Gene Sperling has served, inter alia, as (1) Director of President Obama’s National Economic Council (succeeding Larry Summers), (2) Hillary Clinton’s chief economic adviser during her presidential campaign, and (3) Director of President Bill Clinton’s National Economic Council.

Question 10

As the volunteer treasurer and de facto chief fund-raiser of IHAD-National, what did Yours Truly document was the typical success rate of the 179 IHAD programs in transforming the typical SINGLE-DIGIT high-school graduation rates?

Answer 10

60% - 65%.

Question 11

As the volunteer treasurer and de facto chief fund-raiser of IHAD-National, did Yours Truly investigate why the 179 IHAD programs were only succeeding in transforming the typical SINGLE-DIGIT high-school graduation rates to 60%-65% of the Dreamers graduating from high school and proceeding to college?

Answer 11

Yes.

Question 12

Did Yours Truly’s investigation document that the reason for only a 60%-65% success rate was that 50% of the female Dreamers became pregnant before high-school graduation and then, as a practical matter, did not pursue education further?

Answer 12

Yes.

Question 13

Did Yours Truly then investigate further why the female Dreamers who had become pregnant, did so?

Answer 13

Yes.

Question 14

When Yours Truly investigated the reason why the female Dreamers who had become pregnant did so, did the answer almost invariably have nothing to do with welfare, etc., but instead was almost always the result of a feeling of being loved by nobody and, accordingly, a feeling of wanting to create something that would have no choice but to love them?

Answer 14

Yes.

Question 15

Did Yours Truly then investigate why the female Dreamers who had NOT become pregnant, did not do so?

Answer 15

Yes.

Question 16

Did Yours Truly document that the IHAD tutors/mentors of the Dreamers as they progressed from early-elementary school through high-school graduation had become de facto “surrogate parents”? And that, as surrogate parents, if they told their female Dreamers “You could make something of yourself with this program AND IT WOULD BREAK MY HEART IF YOU DIDN’T!!!”, the female Dreamer pregnancy rate was only 10% instead of 50%?


Answer 16

Yes. Yes.

Question 17

And did Yours Truly then recommend for all the IHAD projects whose “Dreamers” had not yet reached High School graduation, that their tutors/mentors make a special point of saying to the Dreamers early and often that “You could make something of yourself with this program AND IT WOULD BREAK MY HEART IF YOU DIDN’T!!!” And did the success rates of those projects then break through the 60%-65% barrier of High School graduation and college matriculation, so that the success rates exceeded 90%?

Answer 17

Yes.

Question 18

Was this success rate fueled not only by tutors/mentors who became de facto “surrogate parents” from early-elementary school through high-school graduation, but just as importantly was it also fueled by the transformation of the atmosphere of an entire grade in an inner-city school (or the atmosphere of an entire grade-cohort in a public-housing project) as all of the children in such a grade level or grade cohort began focusing on, and talking with each other about, their dream of going to college?

Answer 18

Yes.

Question 19

Does IHAD-National appear to have lost all of this “institutional knowledge”? In other words, do the local IHAD programs during the last decade appear to be located in close-in suburbs rather than inner-cities?

Answer 19

Yes. Yes.

Question 20

Does “school choice” fail abysmally to solve the real problem because it only “cherry picks” the inner-city children who are fortunate enough to have a functional parent and leaves behind in America’s permanent under-caste the overwhelming majority who are in a single-adult household headed by a druggie who signs over any welfare checks to the pusher so the kids have to steal just in order to eat?

Answer 20

Yes.

Question 21

Do “teacher evaluations” and “teacher incentives” fail abysmally to solve the real problem because they do nothing to provide the “surrogate parents” who are required and to transform the atmosphere in a complete grade level of an inner-city school (or a complete grade cohort of a public-housing project)?

Answer 21

Yes.

Question 22

When inner-city Kindergartners are asked to draw what they would like to be when they grow up, do they invariably draw WHITE teachers, fire fighters, pilots, etc.?

Answer 22

Yes.

When Yours Truly was adopting his first group of approximately 65 third graders, he thought it would be a good idea to illustrate with colorful eye-catching “kid art” the brochures that would be used for soliciting volunteers to become tutors and mentors.

Accordingly, he asked the Baptist Church across the street from the public-housing project in which the 65 third-graders resided to have their Kindergarten Sunday Schoolers draw what they would like to be when they grew up.

And was shocked at the community criticism of his brochures on the grounds that from among the drawings of more than 40 Kindergartners, he had selected only WHITE doctors, chefs, etc.

But then it was the turn of community leaders to be shocked when the entire universe of more than 40 drawings was checked and ALL OF THE DRAWINGS had depicted only white people!!!

Question 23

In other words, do they already know at the age of 5 that they are ineligible for their dreams?

Answer 23

Sadly, yes!!!

Question 24

In other words, do they already know at the age of 5 that their only realistic career objective is to be a pusher or pimp, or the girl friend of a pusher or pimp?

Answer 24

Tragically, yes!!!

Question 25

Does being trapped in such a perpetual under-caste comprise a “fate worse than death”?

Answer 25

Of course!!!

Question 26

Since the Gates Foundation and Melinda Gates led America for 10 years away from “The Promised Land” by promoting the “false idol” of breaking up inner-city high schools into smaller units and then, after admitting the failure of that approach, promoting the “false idol” of teacher evaluations, are they guilty of “Crimes Against Humanity” within the meaning of the Rome Statute which established the International Criminal Court at The Hague?

Answer 26

Yes.

Please see Yours Truly’s original proposal posted on this Bulletin Board for the technical definition of “Crimes Against Humanity” contained in the Rome Statute. And why the actions of the Gates Foundation and Melinda Gates meet those definitions.

Including the issue of reckless behavior satisfying the intent requirement. And neither “persecution against any identifiable group” nor “other inhumane acts of a similar character causing great suffering” requiring the use of weaponry so that reliance on the well-known principle “the pen is mightier than the sword” is not even necessary for either to constitute “Crimes Against Humanity” as specified in the Rome Statute.

Question 27

Even though the U.S. is one of the world’s few countries that has not ratified the Rome Statute creating the International Criminal Court, does the United Nations Security Council still have the power to confer ICC jurisdiction over the Gates Foundation and Melinda Gates? [Hint = How did the ICC achieve jurisdiction over War Crimes in Bosnia?]

Answer 27

Yes.

Question 28

Should the United Nations Security Council confer jurisdiction on the ICC to prosecute the Gates Foundation and Melinda Gates for “Crimes Against Humanity” that have destroyed the lives of more human beings than have been involved as victims in all of the prosecutions combined that the ICC has undertaken in its history?

Answer 28

Absolutely!!!

Though, unfortunately, it will never happen as a practical matter.

Question 29

So what do many of you have in common with the late Joe Paterno and the former President of Penn State?

Answer 29

Many of you have asked me whether my pointing out that the reckless behavior of the Gates Foundation and Melinda Gates are “Crimes Against Humanity” that should be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court, isn’t “over the top.”

Please see the 7/2/2012 Addendum to my original proposal posted on this Bulletin Board for why it is not.

Indeed, the reasoning set forth in the 7/2/2012 Addendum was made vivid by an exchange of e-mails following the inclusion of this Short Quiz in last Saturday’s weekly e-mail to our 150 members between Yours Truly and one of the 150 recipients who is a Penn State graduate and who took umbrage at the suggestion that Joe Paterno has anything in common with the Gates Foundation and Melinda Gates.

Those e-mails are also posted on this Bulletin Board in this section entitled "Participant Comments."

My e-mail tried as gently as possible to point out that the 7/12/2012 Washington Post article about Jerry Sandusky’s conviction on 45 counts of child sex abuse, and Former FBI Director Louis Freeh’s Report for Penn State on the imbroglio which analyzed e-mails as indicating that Joe Paterno and the Penn State President had engaged in a cover up of Sandusky’s crimes, was entitled “Freeh Report on Penn State’s Handling of Jerry Sandusky’s Child Abuse Scandal Reveals ‘Total Disregard’ for Victims.”

My e-mail concluded that it is only human nature to focus on the people or institutions with which we are familiar and to lose focus completely on the victims of their actions. But that there is no question that the reckless behavior of the Gates Foundation and Melinda Gates has condemned to a “fate worse than death” many more millions of victims than have been involved in all of the cases combined that have been and are being prosecuted at the ICC.

And in losing sight of the victims of the Gates Foundation and Melinda Gates, those of you who have asked me whether I don’t think my views are “over the top” have in common with Joe Paterno and the President of Penn State what the Washington Post calls a “Disregard for Victims.”